Morning found the group up early and filled with nervous energy.  Unlike most mornings, there were no late risers, not to say they were lacking any of their usual antics.  Eunhyuk ‘blew’ all the blankets off the girls while they were just getting out of bed.  Kharin followed the fleeing figure as he retreated to hide behind Leeteuk.  The latter looked confused, then amused and finally surprised when Kharin grinned mischievously.

           Behind him, Eunhyuk murmured, “Uh oh…”

           Quickly, Kharin filled the room with darkness and stepped back, closing the door behind her and keeping an eye out in case Garein showed up unexpectedly.  She listened at the door as Summer and Eleanara came out to see what had happened.

           They heard a thud followed by, “Ow!  Kharin,” Leeteuk called, still confused.

           Eleanara’s amusement at the situation faded slightly at that and she poked the shadow elementalist, “Kharin…”

           “What?” she shrugged, still grinning.  At Eleanara’s continued attention, she sighed.  “Oh alright.”  She cracked the door open and removed the darkness from the room, revealing Eunhyuk sitting on the bed further from the door and Leeteuk slowly picking himself up from the floor.

           Eleanara peeked around the door under Kharin’s arms and nearly fell forward when Siwon snagged Kharin around the shoulders and hauled her away, laughing, “Stop picking on them.”

           “But it’s fun,” she remarked, allowing herself to be dragged and poking him in the ribs for good measure.

           “Yeah, yeah,” they heard him respond down the hallway.

           Summer spied Kyuhyun following them, a fairly straight expression on his face.  She waited for him to walk by before she hopped on his back and laughed, “Smile, Kyu!”  The tops of her feet dragged lightly against the ground as she held on with her arms.

           “Why?” he smirked, taking her a couple steps before actually helping to hold her up.

           “Just because,” she assured him, propping her chin on his shoulder as he carried her.  His gentle chuckle as he walked was answer enough she had gotten him to smile.

           Leeteuk surprised the distracted Eleanara as she watched them move away.  He placed his hand against the middle of her back and smiled down at her, “Shall we join them?”

           She chirped an affirmative and nodded, glancing over his shoulder to see Eunhyuk close behind.  On impulse, she waved at him enthusiastically, making him grin, before she was propelled in the general direction of the others.

           Breakfast was a lively affair, full of animated conversation as they got themselves ready for the next leg of their journey.  Gairen sat and filled them in on points of interest and warned them to steer clear of any patrols they might see.  He had no idea how eager they were to do just that.  They were pleasantly surprised to learn that he had managed to pull together a different kind of travel ration.  It was like the ones they had, but the bread was significantly different being darker and heartier, and he used a different dried meat and dry cheese that kept well in cooler climes.

           As a whole, they were encouraged to clean themselves up again as Gairen volunteered to see how their gear was coming along.  That and it was likely they wouldn’t have access to a bath as nice as this one had been.  First though, he pulled Leeteuk off to the side to help review the map that he carried.  It was a bit outdated but he filled in more recent notes to indicate good stopping points and certain dangers they might come across.  Part way into the discussion, Eleanara joined them taking the spot next to Leeteuk as she usually did on the trail and listened intently.  Gairen just shrugged when Leeteuk didn’t say anything and continued his explanation.

           The others distracted themselves with pretending to go through their packs and attempting to clean up the rooms.  Most of the stuff they had left in the packs so there was very little mess to clean up in general but none of them were overly inclined to get around to it.  In fact, baths took a bit longer than usual and those that were left in the rooms messed with each other as much as they attempted to clean.

           While Kharin and Summer took the first set of baths, Eunhyuk kept leaning into the room Siwon and Kyuhyun shared and ruffling the made beds.  It was easy enough to distract himself but after the third such attempt, Siwon surprised him with a globe of water that dropped down from above and doused his head.

           Kyuhyun fell back on the bed he had been waiting in front of and laughed, glancing over at the drenched Eunhyuk which only prompted further laughter.  Siwon chuckled and threw him a towel which he caught awkwardly, a rueful grin on his face.  “Don’t you have anything better to do?” he asked, a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

           Eunhyuk dabbed at himself and laughed, “I do now.”

           Kyuhyun continued to watch in no small amount of glee as Eunhyuk also had to wipe down the floor so none of the others would slip.  The girls chose that moment to walk by, damp hair unbound for a change and they paused to watch Eunhyuk cleaning up the spill.  “What did we miss?” Kharin asked, using the doorframe to lean over the man on the floor and glance down at the floor.

           He looked up and jerked to the side when he saw how close she was, a couple stray strands of hair nearly long enough to touch him.  Abruptly, he sat back and propped the hand that held the towel on top of the knee he propped up and looked up at the pair in the doorway.  “Siwon got me,” he admitted, carelessly sending and wisp of wind to ruffle the water elementalist’s hair.  Siwon just laughed as he fixed his hair and shook his head.

           “Come on you,” Kharin reached out her free hand towards Eunhyuk.  “I guess that makes it your turn,” she winked, helping to haul him to his feet as he had already gotten most of the water on the floor.  What was left wouldn’t hurt anyone.

           “I’ll be ready for it next time,” he told Siwon as he threw the wet towel over an equally wet shirt.

           “Is that a challenge?” Siwon asked, rising to follow the shorter man who grinned and fled effortlessly to the bathing area.  “Hah.  Guess I better go keep an eye on him,” he winked conspiratorially at the girls.

           They watched him go with amused expressions.  Summer took the bed opposite Kyuhyun and peered at him.  “Whatcha doing?”

           “Resting,” he answered easily, looking back at her with relaxed eyes.

           “Good idea,” she agreed, throwing herself down on the covers of the other bed and taking a deep breath.

           Kharin shrugged and went to the front to see how the other two were doing with Gairen.  It appeared as if the innkeeper had pretty much finished his explanation as both Leeteuk and Eleanara were looking over the map themselves, speaking quietly while he was heading for the door.  Before he reached it, Vayna bustled in followed by a blast of cold snowy air.

           “Brrr,” she shivered in amusement, the long-sleeve shirt she wore hardly sufficient to deter the cold outside for long.  “We’ve got a cold one today, Gairen,” she chuckled, shaking the flakes of snow off her kerchief covered head.  Distractedly, she headed for the nearest dining table and unloaded the packets in her arms unceremoniously.  “Ah, they’re only clothes,” she waved when he seemed concerned that a couple parcels fell onto the floor.

           “I thought we were supposed to go and get them?” Eleanara began tentatively, hovering near Leeteuk, startled by the sudden appearance of the intense woman.

           “Well, ya took too long,” Vayna laughed as she retrieved the two fallen packets and set them out on the table.  “We finished sooner than we thought,” she shrugged, eyeing the three she could see.  “You’re all a lot smaller than our typical orders so didn’t take as much.”  Her matter of fact explanation left them curious as to whether it was a compliment or possible insult…

           Tentatively, Leeteuk reached for the pouch of money he continued to carry on his person and started, “And how much did it come to?”

           Annoyed, she waved the idea away.  “We’ll just charge the monastery for the cost with their next messenger up.  Ain’t got time to be haggling with you,” she stated bluntly.  “Too many damn patrols in the area,” she added gruffly, a severely perturbed expression marring her face.

           Comprehension dawned on Leeteuk and he nodded.  “The sooner we leave the better then.”  Mild approval flared to life in the older woman’s eyes and she nodded.  “Tierne should be along shortly too.  He wants to go after Marcus when we’ve sent these ones off,” she directed at Gairen.  “You got any more of those travel rations?”

           “Sure,” Gairen nodded, mild concern in his eyes.  “See me on your way out,” he waved, noting her restlessness.

           “You know it,” she grinned, a strong set of well cared for teeth showing prominently.  “Take care out there, youngsters.  The snow’s the least of your worries,” she laughed, unaware of how menacing that statement sounded.  The thought crossed her mind before she reached the door and she laughed harder.  “Forget I said that.  You’ll be fine!”  With that, she ducked back out into the cold snowy day and closed the door firmly behind her.

           Uncertainly, the three elementalists looked at each other and forced half-smiles.  Gairen caught the looks and laughed heartily.  “Pay her no mind.  She doesn’t mean any harm by it.”  Enthusiastically, he waved them over and grinned.  “Don’t you want to see what they’ve made you?”

           Blatant curiosity crossed their faces as they made their way over to glance at the table full of paper wrapped parcels.  They were large but that was a given since each one supposedly had all the items for each person.  The only difference between the packages were the letters on them, meant to help them distinguish which package was for whom.  The only one that was easy to tell apart initially was Leeteuk’s but once they started opening the packets, it was easy enough to see which ones belonged to the guys and which belonged to the girls.  Vayna had chosen dark brown for their trousers and a sort of russet red top which would help to hide most messes of any sort.  Drell had fashioned the men’s trousers out of a black cloth and he had given then dark blue tops with a similar function in mind.  Each packet had a pair of well-made light brown leather boots, tan soft leather gloves and off-white winter coats to help blend in with the snow.

           Excitedly, Kharin grabbed up her set and hurried back to the room to try them on, letting Summer and Kyuhyun know their clothes were on the table too.  A moment later, the pair appeared to retrieve their new garments.  Summer was just as eager to try hers on while the other three glanced in the direction of the hall that led to the bathing area.  They’d rather be clean first and not have to change yet again…

           Fortunately, Siwon and Eunhyuk emerged soon after, damp and refreshed.  They had heard the general excitement of the girls down the hall and came to investigate for themselves.  Kyuhyun immediately headed for the baths after that, leaving Leeteuk to shrug at Eleanara as he followed suit so she wouldn’t have to wait longer than she needed to.  Though she was the last to be able to clean up, she was the only one present when the massive Tierne came through the door, startling her again.

           The blacksmith took one look around, saw the table still topped with a couple items of clothes and then headed for an empty table before gently placing his carefully wrapped cloth bundle on the flat surface, metal chiming softly underneath.  He fixed Eleanara with a steady gaze and stated simply, “You treat them right, they’ll do the same for you.”  Satisfied, he nodded once and abruptly left before Gairen even had a chance to come out and properly greet him.

           Seeing the weapon’s bundle on the table, Gairen sighed.  “He’s always like that.  Ah well.  Let’s see what he’s done this time.”  Almost reverently, he unrolled the cloth cover and allowed the weapons to settle, metal chiming again as they had more room to move.  “Looks like he polished up some of his old pieces for ya,” he grinned, carefully touching the familiar weapons.  “Which one suited your fancy?” he asked Eleanara as she ambled over.

           She smiled as her sight landed on the smallest weapon in the group.  All the bladed and pronged weapons were housed in dark, leather wrapped, wooden sheathes and hers was no exception.  She carefully extracted the compact blade from the rest of the weapons and opened it experimentally, sighing as it whispered quietly from the case, polished metal gleaming brightly.  Testing, she tapped the tip with her finger and winced, sticking her finger in as a bead of blood pooled up.  “I meant to do that,” she mumbled in embarrassment as Gairen raised a brow at her.

           He laughed and shook his head.  “Of course you did.”

           “Oh!  Weapons!” a new voice exclaimed excitedly as Eunhyuk bounced into view, dressed in the new clothes.  Siwon followed behind him and the girls were easy to miss behind his taller frame.

           Eagerly, the four looked over the finely crafted items before them and went through a similar process, though none of them pricked their finger in any way.  Siwon seemed very satisfied with the heft of his maul and even more pleased, as Kharin was, that Tierne had thought to given them a strap to hand the heavy weapons from.  Eunhyuk and summer were like kids with new toys as they finally got to handle real, sharpened sais and not the dull practice ones they’d had to make do with in the monastery.  “Not inside,” Gairen warned sharply as the pair looked about ready to spar.

           They winced and grinned sheepishly before saluting him with the weapons in their hands and then sliding them back into the duel sheathes.  The group looked back at the hallway as the sharply dressed and freshly washed Leeteuk and Kyuhyun finally appeared, just as excited as the rest about their weapons.  Quickly, Eleanara snatched up her parcel of clothes and bolted for the back, not quite ready to be the one holding the others up.

           While she was getting cleaned up, the others were making sure that everything was set to go.  Gairen brought out the tray of travel rations he had made, carefully wrapped and portioned out so they would have less to worry about on the road.  “As you’ve seen on the map, the next village is about three days from here on foot.  Fairwinter,” and he grinned at the name, “is near the base of the mountain range.  From there on, things get a bit warmer, but they’ll be able to direct you onward from there.”

           “Thank you, Gairen,” Leeteuk smiled appreciatively, holding his hand out for the other man.  Gairen grinned and accepted the gesture, making sure he didn’t shake too hard.

           “Just take care of yourselves out there,” the larger man winked, catching them all in that statement.  “And be careful,” he warned again.  “No more falling down mountain slopes,” he chided, eyeing Kharin and Siwon carefully.

           Kharin raised her hands up in surrender as Siwon looked briefly confused and then copied her example with a grin.  “We promise,” she assured him emphatically to the general amusement of the rest.

           “I guess we should get ready to head out then,” Leeteuk exclaimed, glancing around.  His gaze traveled back to the hallway.

           “We’ll get her stuff,” Kharin assured him as she snagged Summer and they went to gather the packs in their room.

           “Come on, you,” Siwon chuckled, grabbing Kyuhyun in a playful headlock and marching him towards their room.

           “I’m coming, already,” he muttered, laughter in his voice betraying that he wasn’t really upset.

           Eunhyuk grinned at Leeteuk as he darted off, dashing around the pair ahead of him in a burst of speed.  “No fair,” Leeteuk grinned, running after him, barely missing Siwon and Kyuhyun.

           In the time it took them to sort out the packs, get everything stowed the way they wanted and returned the rooms to a semblance of order, Eleanara had joined the group and was as ready as they were to be on their way.  A quick peek outside the shuttered window in their rooms showed that the snow had finally died down a bit and that it should be bearable.  As a group, they hauled the packs to the dining area to say their final farewell to Gairen.

           “Good luck,” he simply stated, saluting them all cordially.  As one, they bowed to him respectfully.  He watched them wrestle into the packs, securing straps and shifting their new weapons around so that everything sat comfortably.  They had the look of a group that generally knew what they were doing.  Granted, they were young and he could tell they lacked experience, but the knowledge was there.  There was also a camaraderie that they shared as each person looked over the next, making sure they had everything and that nothing was left behind.  Leeteuk looked them all over one final time and then nodded, at which point he led the way out the door.  It wasn’t until the door had closed behind them and the new silence descended that he realized he was going to miss their youthful exuberance.  With a sigh, Gairen glanced around the empty dining area and retreated to his private room behind the bar.  He still had to get those rations for Vayna…